5 Tips For Marketing Your Innovative Product on Social Media

As consumers move away from television print media, businesses are learning to find new ways to connect with their customers. With the rise of social media, people want to have engagement, and they want to know they are being recognized and heard by the companies where they spend their money.

This new mode of communication opens new doors, and it also offers ways to reach your target audience on a budget. You no longer have to spend thousands or even millions of dollars on ads that may or may not reach the people you want to reach. Instead, you can set up a free account on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, or a variety of other social media sites, to reach consumers and interact with them.

Paid ads for social media platforms are targeted and incredibly effective for the cost. However, building your free account is the first step toward success. Particularly if you have an innovative product that stands out from anything else that is on the market, build your account and followers will come.

Black Buffalo, a maker of tobacco free chew, is a prime example of a company that has built a following on social media by curating its image and creating engaging posts. Its unique products attract followers because they are searching for smokeless tobacco alternatives that satisfy; and they become loyal fans not just because of the quality, but also because Black Buffalo’s Instagram and Facebook understand what customers are looking for in their brand.

1. Know Your Audience

Knowing exactly who is going to be interested in your product is the first step in successful marketing, and it will help you decide where to put your social media efforts as well. Each platform appeals to a slightly different set of demographics, and you can avoid wasting your time and money by knowing which sites your ideal customers are using.

Learn everything you can about your target audience as you prepare to build your social media accounts. This way, you can communicate in ways that will attract their attention. Use their favorite colors, take them into consideration when you are choosing fonts and imagery, and use language that lets them know your products were made just for them.

2. Create Excellent Content

Social media algorithms will bump your account up in its rankings based on several different factors, which change semi-regularly. However, it is clear that the longer people spend looking at your posts, and the more they engage, the more prevalent your company will become.

You may already have a great website and blog (if you don’t, consider getting yourself set up with one), but you also need to focus on creating content in the standard format for your chosen social media platform. Generally, posts on Facebook and Instagram are much shorter than a blog post, and they rely on images to tell the majority of the story.

Keep your posts relevant, and try to maintain a mix of entertaining, informative, and promotional posts. Platforms like Instagram are highly visual, and you are going to want to curate your feed to be scrollable and pleasant to look at.

3. Pay Attention to Timing

Timing is almost as important as actual content when it comes to social media. If you post something at 3 AM, when no one else is on, then your content is likely to get buried before anybody even has the chance to see it.

Do some research to learn when the most people are on your chosen platform, then do your best to stick to a posting schedule that aligns with that timing. You can always invest in an app like Hootsuite or Later, to help you get your posts out at the perfect time no matter where you are. Just create the post and set it up to publish at your designated time through the app.

4. Engage With Your Customers

One of the biggest reasons social media is so effective for marketing is the potential it offers for engagement. When you interact with your customers, they feel heard and recognized. This builds community, relationships, and loyalty. It also bumps your company’s account up in the rankings, making it more likely that your page will be seen by more people who will be interested in your products.

When people comment on your posts, reply to them with a message that indicates you’re paying attention. Spend time building your community by following people back, and liking and commenting on their posts as well.

5. Use the Right Hashtags

Hashtags are a good way to get your company found in search results on social media, but you need to develop a strategy. Using only hashtags that everyone else is using will result in your company being lost in the mix. However, the right combination of branded hashtags, common hashtags, and more specific hashtags will help your account turn up in a greater number of searches.

Final Thoughts

Social media is one of the most important ways you can connect with your audience when you have a unique or innovative product. Reaching out to consumers in a relatable way—with content that entertains, informs, and engages—will help build brand recognition and loyalty. Your social media presence takes a lot of work to establish, but the benefits go a long way toward growing the company of your dreams.